Neuropsychological disturbances in cerebellar infarcts

Background - Recent clinical and research reports suggest that the cerebell um may contribute to the modulation of higher cognitive functions. Material and methods - We included 15 consecutive patients with isolated cerebellar infarcts (4 superior cerebellar artery territory infarcts, 1 anterior infe rior cerebellar artery territory infarct and 10 posterior inferior cerebell ar artery territory infarcts), all confirmed by magnetic resonance imaging. These subjects plus 15 controls matched for age, sex, and educational leve l underwent a neuropsychological test battery including vocabulary, similar ities and block design subtests of the Wechsler Adult Intelligence Scale Re vised (WAIS-R); verbal fluency tests (categorial, phonemic, and alternate c ategorial fluency tests); Rey's 15 auditory word learning list; the paced a uditory serial addition task; the Stroop test and the Zerssen Rating Scale. One year after the cerebellar infarct, each subject with cerebellar infarc t was asked to undergo a second neuropsychological examination with the sam e test battery. Results - Patients with cerebellar infarcts exhibited signi ficantly lower neuropsychological performances compared to those of the con trol group without any obvious difference between the different vascular ce rebellar territories. After 1 year of follow-up, this neuropsychological im pairment tended to improve. Conclusions - The pattern of deficits observed in isolated cerebellar infarcts highlights the nonmotor functions of the ce rebellum and functional relationship between the cerebral cortex and the ce rebellum.